Citizens in Jammu and Kashmir need no longer to get their documents related to government works attested by gazetted officers as Raj Bhavan has cleared the “self attestation policy”.
The move is seen as a breather for jobless youth who had to get their documents such as marks sheets etc. attested to apply for government jobs.
“Yes, the self attestation policy was cleared by the Governor yesterday soon after he appointed his advisors,” said a source in Raj Bhavan.
An official in the General Administration Department said applicants now only need to produce self-certified copies of their documents related to any work before the government authorities.
However they would require producing original documents at final stage. The policy would also save common man’s pocket as preparation of affidavits regarding different government works would cost people some money.
The official said the self-attestation policy was adopted by Government of India in July 2014 on the basis of the recommendation of 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission in its 12th report titled ‘Citizen centric administration – The heart of governance.’
In the same year all the states including Jammu and Kashmir were directed by New Delhi to implement the new policy which has been appreciated in many states as pro-people.
The GAD official said a communication received by the state from Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances had stressed on switching to self-attestation as the Union department had termed the policy as citizen-friendly while observing that obtaining either an attested copy or affidavit not only costs money but also involves wastage of time of both people and government officials.
“Therefore it is requested to review the existing requirements in a phased manner and make provision for self-certification of documents after obtaining approval from competent authority,” the official quoted the communication from Union Government.
People in general and jobless youth in particular welcomed the switch to self attestation policy which has been one of the favorite programs of Prime Minister NarendraModi.
“It is a much required breather for jobless youth like me who had to move from one office to another to get their documents attested. In many cases the officials would at the last minute reject to attest the documents on one pretext or the other,” said Shabir Ahmad, a Srinagar resident.
The situation was far worse in villages and far flung areas where people were required to travel long distances to get their documents attested.
